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Marnie
and Kern Wildenthal, M.D, Ph.D. to receive 4th Annual Virginia
Chandler Dykes Leadership Award
Award
honors Dallas leaders with a lifelong commitment to improving
the quality of life in the community and to furthering the
importance of education
10/4/05
Dallas, Texas
– Marnie and Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D. have been
named the 2006 recipients of the 4TH Annual Virginia Chandler
Dykes Leadership Award, presented by Texas Woman’s University
and the TWU School of Occupational Therapy. The announcement
was made Sept. 21, 2005, at a reception in the home of Gretchen
Minyard Williams and J.L. “Sonny” Williams, the
2005 recipients of this honor.
Established in
2002, the Virginia Chandler Dykes Leadership Award is given
annually to Dallas leaders with a lifelong commitment to improving
the quality of life in the community and to furthering the
importance of education. The award recognizes the life work
of Virginia Chandler Dykes as an outstanding health care provider,
whose professional and civic achievements represent a lifetime
committed to helping others. Past award recipients are Gretchen
Minyard Williams and J.L. “Sonny” Williams, 2005;
Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, 2004; and Susan and
Charles Cooper, 2003. Texas Woman’s University Chancellor
and President Dr. Ann Stuart will present the award to Dr.
and Mrs. Wildenthal on Feb. 2, 2006, at a luncheon at the
Dallas Country Club.
“Texas Woman’s
University is so pleased to honor two such distinguished individuals,
whose combined commitments to education excellence and improving
the lives of others have made a lasting impact on this community
and beyond,” said TWU Chancellor and President Dr. Ann
Stuart.
Marnie and Kern
Wildenthal’s collaborative work as teachers, educators
and health administrators has dramatically impacted this region’s
institutions. For the past 25 years, Marnie Wildenthal has
worked as a middle school teacher at the Episcopal School
of Dallas, where she has also served as the school’s
director of accreditation as well as the interim director
of admissions. Additionally, Marnie has given her time and
talent as a teacher and board member to Vickery Meadow Learning
Center and served as a tutor at Withers Elementary. An outstanding
civic leader, Marnie has served on many boards including the
TACA Board of Directors, where she is currently president,
Charter 100, and the Friends of WRR. Her work with these organizations
and others such at The Dallas Opera, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
League and the Dallas Museum of Art have greatly impacted
the local arts community. A graduate of Rice University, Marnie
earned a M.A.T. from the University of Chicago, and an M.A.
from SMU.
Dr. Kern Wildenthal
has been the president of The University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center Dallas since 1986. He served as the dean of
the medical school at UT Southwestern for six years before
assuming his current position. Prior to that he served as
graduate school dean and professor of internal medicine and
physiology. During his administrative tenure, UT Southwestern
has more than quadrupled in size and emerged as one of the
leading medical institutions in the world. Four of its faculty
have won Nobel Prizes, 15 have been named members of the National
Academy of Sciences, and 40 have been elected as presidents
of national societies of their clinical and research specialties.
Additionally, more than 200 new endowed Chairs and Professorships
have been established; total endowments have risen by over
$800 million; two referral hospitals and outpatient facilities
totaling 400,000 square feet have been added to campus; and
the first four buildings of a planned $1 billion research
complex have been completed.
A Texas native,
Dr. Wildenthal is a graduate of Sul Ross College. He earned
an M.D. from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center of Dallas, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge
in Cambridge, England, where he was named to its international
Advisory Board and elected to an Honorary Fellowship. Dr.
Wildenthal has served as a visiting professor or consultant
at over 60 medical schools, universities and research institutes
around the world. His medical accomplishments have garnered
him international acclaim, and he has received countless professional
awards and recognition, including election to the Institute
of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Wildenthal
joins Marnie as one of Dallas’ most dedicated and outstanding
arts supporters and civic leaders. He has served as a board
member and played key roles for numerous organizations such
as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Museum of
Art. Dr. and Mrs. Wildenthal have two grown daughters, Pamela
(Mrs. Steven G. Kernie) and Catharine (Mrs. Steven A. Cummer).
“Marnie and
I are touched and grateful to receive this distinguished honor
named for such an outstanding woman, whose life work in Occupational
Therapy is known both nationally and internationally,”
said Dr. Kern Wildenthal. “It is with a spirit of celebration
of higher education and collaboration and, in Marnie’s
case, a celebration of the mutual dependence partnership between
schools like Episcopal School of Dallas preparing students
for success at institutions like TWU, that we are pleased
to accept.”
This award’s
namesake, Virginia Chandler Dykes, has spent a lifetime committed
to helping others through her work as a health care provider
and numerous civic activities. She is known internationally
for her work in occupational therapy. Locally, she is known
for her leadership in many cultural and charitable organizations.
In 2005 she was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to serve on the
Texas Woman’s University Board of Regents.
“I am so
very honored to have Marnie and Kern accept this award,”
said Virginia Chandler Dykes. “It means so much to TWU.
These are two tremendously outstanding people whose accomplishments
and dedication to this community have literally been life-changing
for countless individuals.”
Mrs. Dykes completed
the graduate occupational therapy program at TWU in 1954 after
earning her bachelor of arts in art and psychology from Southern
Methodist University. She was the director of the Occupational
and Recreational Therapy Department at Baylor University Medical
Center for 25 years. She also founded the Boomerang Club,
the first support group for stroke patients and their families.
In 2002, she established
The Virginia Chandler Dykes endowed scholarship fund for occupational
therapy students, which has been extended this year to include
a graduate level nursing scholarship. Mrs. Dykes and her husband
Roland also helped to establish the Fanny B. Vanderkooi Endowed
Lectureship for the School of Occupational Therapy at TWU,
which has grown to be one of the premier continuing education
offerings in Texas. She is also well known for her leadership
in organizations such as The Dallas Opera, the Dallas Arboretum’s
Women’s Council and the Fort Worth Opera.
The 2006 Virginia
Chandler Dykes Leadership Award Luncheon will take place on
Feb. 2, 2006 at the Dallas Country Club. Luncheon Advisory
Committee members are Joel Allison, Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence
Barzune, April Box, Sis Carr, Howard Chase, Louise Gartner,
Ebby Halliday Acers, Doug Hawthorne, Caroline Rose Hunt, and
Mr. and Mrs. Martin J. Weiland. For more information, contact
TWU Development Officer Sheila Marlow, at 940-898-3865 or
smarlow@mail.twu.edu.
###
For Further Information
Contact:
Elizabeth Lenart
VGS Marketing Group
972-395-9034
el@vgsmarketing.com |
